But like so many infrastructure projects in Victoria, a fight looms between Canberra and Spring Street about how and where to build the line.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is demanding Premier Daniel Andrews — who has previously said construction would be underway before 2025 — to match the Commonwealth's $5 billion commitment.

That request has not been met yet, but the Andrews Government have been quietly working with Canberra bureaucrats to develop a report on how much it may cost, what the best route may be and then how to build it.

That work is due in September.

So, the good news for Victorians is that finally, after initial talk in the 1960s, there should be an operational rail link to the airport sometime in the next decade.

His speech to a business forum was light on detail but in it he outlined how his Government wanted to use the rail link project to better connect the metropolitan network with faster services to the bush.

The Prime Minister's major cash splash kicks the project along in a big way and will also go some way to putting to bed attacks that his Government has duded Victoria on federal infrastructure funding.

The calls have come loudest from the Andrews Government, who have highlighted the state receives less than 10 per cent of the federal infrastructure pie despite representing a quarter of the nation.

Victorian Liberals at a state and federal level have been privately and more recently publicly calling for more money, where the Labor Party have consistently held a two-party preferred lead over Mr Turnbull in published polls.

It is a state where the sledge "the Prime Minister for Sydney" was gaining traction.

When can I catch the train to my holiday?The mere mention of an airport rail link always stimulates talk of why it has not been built before, and for punters sitting in traffic panicked about missing a flight an opportunity to dream of a better way.

And despite the fresh round of enthusiasm from experts and voters alike, this project is a long way away.